Today in class we completed the play, I and You, by Lauren Gunderson http://laurengunderson.com/about-lauren/ Watch the clip from the Marin Theatre Company run http://marintheatre.org/productions/i-and-you/
The student cast was excellent!
We spoke about going to see Gunderson's play at the San Francisco Playhouse now through April 19, 2014 http://sfplayhouse.org/sfph/bauer/
Writing Assignment
1. For homework, please write a 250 word summary response to the play. Note themes, character, craft or writing, and anything special that stood out for you. Please note the use of Whitman as the running narrative or insightful link to the plot which remains somewhat inarticulate until the very end. Post on the blog.
Reading Assignments
Other homework: Read Whitman's poem, Song of Myself. Also read the handouts on Whitman from poets.org -- Guide to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass: biography and introduction (handouts).
Did you know anything about Whitman before reading this play and then reading his poem. Isn't is interesting that the form "free verse" is an American contribution to the poetic literary canon. Freedom is something Americans are really passionate about.
Listen
The CD you heard playing when you walked into the class was The Richard Howell Quintet: We Are All Connected: http://www.wireonfire.com/richardhowell/rhq/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-SpgXafKvg
John Coltrane's A Love Supreme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmD16eSy-Mg
Buy Books. Read and complete exercises in the Writing with a Thesis package.
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7 comments:
I really enjoyed reading “I and You” paly by Lauren Gunderson. The play is whole conversation between Anthony and Caroline, who are classmate, but they have never met because Caroline doesn’t go to school; her chronic illness has kept her home for a long time. Anthony asked to be assigned to her to work on a project for American lit class about Walt Whitman poem.
At the beginning all incidents such as letting someone in your room without knowing him, or asking Anthony to work with Caroline ,who is sick and doesn’t go to school, or the continuous sound of fire alarm sound weird and not connected. Even quoting from Whitman at the beginning of the play “You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood” doesn’t make that much sense until the end of play which reader realize that Anthony was not alive and he donated his kidney to Caroline.
I really liked how Gunderson used literature in this case Whitman poem and connect them with modern life. For example when Anthony talked about his day and how he was witness death of young boy on a basketball court then the quote from Whitman “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look under your boot-soles”.
Neda Akhondan
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1B
27 March 2014
Freewrite Response to I and You
Under Your Shoe
I really enjoyed reading Lauren Gunderson’s play I and You. The play is a whole conversation between protagonists, Anthony and Caroline, who are classmates who have never met. They have never met because Caroline doesn’t go to school— her chronic illness (liver failure) has kept her home for a long time. Anthony asks to be assigned to her to work on a project for American Lit. class about Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass: “Song of Myself.”
At the beginning of Act 1 of 3, there are some really weird things going on such as Caroline’s mother allowing a stranger into her daughter’s room with a plate of cookies (no less). Another unusual incident is texting Caroline’s mother, who is in the house to bring the kids cokes. The continuous sound of the fire alarm sounds weird and disruptive to the conversation between the kids and their work too.
Even quoting from Whitman at the beginning of the play “You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,/ But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,/ And filter and fibre your blood” doesn’t make that much sense until the end of play in which the reader suddenly realizes that Anthony was not alive during the entire play. Even more fantastic is that we are in a hospital, (thus the beeping noise) and Anthony’s kidney has just been transplanted into Caroline’s body (Gunderson 35).
I really liked how Gunderson uses literature, in this case Whitman’s poem to connect the lives of these two characters. For example, when Anthony talks about his day to Caroline and how he was witness to the death of a teammate on the basketball court that afternoon, the quote from Whitman “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,/ If you want me again look under your boot-soles” Caroline recites at Anthony’s insistence in Scene 2, makes sense (Gunderson 35).
Works Cited
Gunderson, Lauren. I and You.New York: Creative Artist Agency, 2013. Print.
Jack Chang
Wanda Sabir
Tues, Thurs 1p.m-4:50
English 1B
1 April 2014
Lauren Gunderson's play I and you was a really good read. It created a lot of imagery in my mind about how the room looked. The whole play took place in the room but it never got boring. The conversation between the two young kids were entertaining and interesting. Quoting Whitman in the beginning of the play and how the mother just let a random child go up to her room did not make sense to me. She kept calling her mother and the mother didn't even mind her. That confused me a lot, this play is one of those really annoying plays in the beginning where your reading it and you don't understand why they do certain things. The end twist of the play where that one twist connected everything made the play so good. I realy enjoyed the play.
Jules Moore
Sabir Posse
April 2, 2014
“I and You”
Summary Response
Death, life, mortality, fragility are all ideas we don’t necessarily think of on a daily basis. We somehow skim through our days preoccupied with agendas and schedules forgetting, ignoring that we will one day die. “I and You” causes the audience to embrace this reality at all ages. Shining these ideas on the two protagonist Caroline and Anthony. Two teens who live in different worlds are forced to collaborate on a paper for their English Lit. class. Through a number of conversations it’s revealed to the audience and Anthony that Caroline has liver failure and has been stuck in her bedroom for a very long time without any hope of ever leaving.
Anthony comes to Caroline with hopes of finishing their paper, but ends up becoming more of a hero as he helps Caroline to explain how she is feeling about her illness. Anthony and Caroline contrast life and life coming to an end. Anthony a star athlete and student who seems to live the life of a promising youth on the opposite spectrum of health compared to Caroline. This creates a unique struggle for Anthony and Caroline as they discover how they aren’t so different after all.
Their expression of music, dreams, and interpretation of life pulls the audience in to their combined world. They both want more from their current existence or status in life and aren’t quite sure how to go about changing things. As their relationship develops the words of Whitman’s poem creates an arrangement of music for the Anthony and Caroline to dance to. Until the music fades and we realize Anthony is a ghost or spirit communicating with Caroline that he is actually dead and in his death became the donor for Caroline’s new liver.
“I and You” is great play and with it’s twist and turns creates drama in all the right places. A beautiful and stylistic production for a morbid reality.
Lizeth Cortez
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1
This is one of the first plays I have ever read I must say I am very pleased with this play. Lauren's play I and you keeps your on your toes, and turning the pages without wanting to stop. The two main characters of the play are Caroline and Anthony. Anthony barges into Caroline life and bedroom without asking for permission. Caroline is hesitant in the beginning about Anthony but eventually she begins to like the idea of someone being there for her and with her. It was as if he was a part of him and she didn't know it. Little did she know that he was the man who saved her life.
One of the many things that makes this play special is that scenery. The play takes place mainly in the bedroom of one of the main Characters Caroline. Due to a severe chronic illness( liver failure) , she doesn't leave her house so the story takes place only in her bedroom. But throughout the play they are taken to different scenes but only in description. Caroline keeps the room with a lot of pictures, and one of her hobbies is to take pictures, she believes capturing the small things is whats most important in life.
Throughout the whole whole play there is a constant beating, on and of. When things would intensify the beat would go a little louder, and maybe a little longer. No one payed attention to that part of the play, assuming it was just a beat. So caught up in the play that eventually the beep becomes something normal and unimportant. But the beat is what keeps Caroline and anthony together as a whole. The quote Whitman uses in the beginning “You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless...”. When we read things we think how romantic, the play will be about love. But not about love in death, not knowing someone loved her so much that allowed her to keep part of him so that She as in Caroline can live. Anthony is literally inside of her which makes the whole play even more romantic but saddening.
Work Cited
Gunderson, Lauren. I and You. New York. Creative Artist Agency, 2013. Print.
"I and You" by Lauren Gunderson had a quite interesting twist to it, probably one of the most interesting ones that I have read so far.
The play starts off by portraying Caroline, a student who suffers from a chronic illness, immersed in her own little world saturated by media- Facebook, Twitter and what not. She doesn't know what is going on in class, until Anthony shows up at her door, with an assignment that is due tomorrow. Caroline, being the independent person that she is finds his visit quite disturbing and acts in a sassy way towards him.
However, as Anthony continually tries to talk to Caroline, she starts bringing up the new undiscovered things in herself. She stirs up things within herself that she would usually keep in and starts letting her guard down.
One way that Gunderson likes to describe the situation of Caroline and Anthony is through the poem. For example, in the beginning, she quotes Whitman's poem by saying "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood". She writes this when Anthony comes in, which is bizarre, that her mother would simply let a stranger in come into her daughter's room.
Continuing on, as Anthony and Caroline continue to have a conversation Caroline starts opening up to him more and more (Gunderson 38). The way that music and literature is expressed through the play really brings out the emotions and the overall feeling of the situation.
It was a big twist at the end when Caroline finds out that Anthony is actually not a real person, but rather the ghost of the donor of her liver. It was an unexpected twist, yet after knowing this truth, the whole play seemed to make a lot more sense. It answered some questions like why Caroline acted the way she did, why she was such a hermit and things like that.
I really enjoyed the play and I think reading it aloud helped more.
Work Cited
Gunderson, Lauren. I and You. New York. Creative Artist Agency, 2013. Print.
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